Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to six new websites that illegally offer financial services/financial products.
Five of them are illegal financial intermediation sites and one site offers financial products in the absence of a prospectus.
In issuing the orders, the Authority made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Development Decree” Law no. 58 of June 28, 2019, article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), regarding the black- out of the websites of abusive financial intermediaries, as well as the power introduced by law no. 8 of February 28, 2020, article no. 4, paragraph 3-bis, with reference to the black-out of the website through which the illegal offer is made.
The sites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:
- “Stocket” (website www.stocket.pro);
- “LLCapitalFX” (website and related page
- “RussellGroupFX” (website and related pages and
- “Aifmd” (website and related page
- “LevictousLTD.co” (website and related page
- “Valemorelimited” (website
The number of illegal websites taken down since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries, has risen to 1,104. Earlier, in June 2024, the regulator ordered the blocking of access to four unauthorized investment websites.
The shutdown of these websites by ISPs operating in Italy continues. For technical reasons, it may take several days for the block to take effect.
Consob draws the attention of investors to the importance of adopting greater diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors necessary to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites offering financial services, the prior checking of operator with whom they are authorized to invest and, for financial product offerings, a prospectus has been published.